'Walking Dead': Norman Reedus on Why Daryl and Maggie Turned Away

Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 9, Episode 3 of “The Walking Dead,” titled “Warning Signs”)

In Sunday night’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” we finally found out who’s been sniping Saviors: Oceanside members whose loved ones were killed by the formerly Negan-run group. In the final scene, Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) discover Cyndie (Sydney Park) and other Oceanside residents about to execute Arat (Elizabeth Ludlow), who killed her 11-year-old brother before the war.

Arat begs Maggie and Daryl to intervene, but the two end up walking away, and she’s killed. The scene seems to mark a boiling-over point: Rick has been trying to get all the communities to live peacefully with one another, but there’s still too much history for that to be a realistic goal. The episode ends ominously, with Maggie telling Daryl: “We gave Rick’s way a chance. It’s time to see Negan.”

Also Read: 'The Walking Dead': Michael Cudlitz on Why Returning to Direct Was 'the Best of Both Worlds'

Reedus told TheWrap that their decision to turn away from the execution has to do with empowering people to make their own decisions — in part because Maggie and Daryl aren’t feeling empowered themselves, at this point.

“If you’re going to run your area, you need to make decisions,” Reedus said. “They wouldn’t have… not intervened if they didn’t think that that group had the right intentions.”

“Both those characters have been in this world long enough where you can only follow someone so long when you don’t agree with what they’re doing,” Reedus said, referring to the two characters’ disagreements with Rick. “[Rick] is sort of blinded by grief and all these other things, and he has to make this work and for all these reasons but he’s not really listening to the people around him anymore.”

Also Read: 'Walking Dead': Jadis Saw That Helicopter Again and We Still Know Nothing About It

“A lot of the stuff with Daryl is he just, he is like, dude you’re not hearing me. Like you’re not listening to me,” Reedus said of Daryl’s conflicts with Rick. He added that the seeds of those conflicts between Daryl and Rick were planted in the Season 8 finale.

“And at the end of last season, that very last scene that we shot, it looks like Jesus, Maggie and Daryl are going to turn on Rick — I wasn’t in that scene [at first],” Reedus said. “Maybe an hour before that, they’re, ‘we want to put you in this scene.’ And I was, ‘what are you talking about? I can’t go against Rick. What are you talking about?’ And they were, ‘trust us, it’ll play out later.’ And I was, ‘wait, wait, what?’ So I spent my whole hiatus thinking, ‘oh my god, I’m going to kill Rick, or he’s going to kill me.”

“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

'Walking Dead' Leaders Ranked, From Gregory to Maggie to Ezekiel

On "The Walking Dead," plenty have tried to lead, but few have been successful. Here we look back on all those who led others to safety -- or their graves.
Gene Page/AMC
14. Gregory (Alive) of the Hilltop Colony. Gregory no longer is in charge, thankfully -- he was maybe not the kind of leader anyone ever needed.
Gene Page/AMC
13. Deanna (Deceased) of Alexandria. Deanna helped keep Alexandria together early on. She was a great judge of character, but did not recognize the walker threat for what it was. She died after the walls of Alexandria fell, leaving the community to Rick.
Gene Page/AMC
12. Dawn (Deceased) of Grady Memorial Hospital. Dawn took charge of the hospital when her predecessor failed to keep people safe, but her practice of requiring forced labor in exchange for meds earned her no friends, and eventually led to her death.
Gene Page/AMC
11. Natania (Deceased) of Oceanside. Emotionally scarred by their brutal defeat at the hands of the Saviors -- after which Negan had every male above age 10 executed -- Natania sort of fell apart, like so many characters do, because of the trauma.
10. Gareth (Deceased) of Terminus. Gareth and his fellow Terminus residents promised weary travelers sanctuary, only to kill and eat them cannibal style. He became obsessed with getting revenge on Rick, eventually leading to his death at Rick's hands.
Gene Page/AMC
9. Hershel (Deceased) of The Farm. Hershel kept himself and his family safe on his farm during the early days of the outbreak, eventually offering shelter to Rick and his group. But Hershel believed that the walkers could be returned to human form, which proved a costly mistake.
Gene Page/AMC
8. Alpha Wolf (Deceased) of The Wolves. The Wolves were a savage group who killed anyone who had something they desired. The Alpha Wolf was a good killer, but his people were ultimately wild and undisciplined.
Gene Page/AMC
7. Joe (Deceased) of The Claimers. Joe and his group lived as nomads, taking what they want when they want. He lived by a simple code of justice, but did not bat an eye when he or his people needed to kill. He underestimated Rick, Daryl, and Michonne, getting every Claimer killed.
Gene Page/AMC
6. The Governor (Deceased) of Woodbury, Martinez Camp. The Governor was all charm and class on the outside, but his inner workings were that of a cold blooded killer. After the citizens of Woodbury abandoned him for Rick, he eventually took over another camp, and subsequently led them to their deaths at the prison.
Gene Page/AMC
5. Jadis (Alive) of The Scavengers. With all of her people dead now, Jadis is not actually a leader anymore. But when she was a leader, by "Walking Dead" standards Jadis was extremely reasonable for somebody who leads a group of people who live in a junkyard. And making Rick do gladiator fights with armored walkers was pretty funny.
AMC
4. Negan (Alive) of The Saviors. Also no longer a leader, but when he was Negan ruled The Saviors through a combination of charm and savagery. He's fun to watch!
Gene Page/AMC
3. Maggie (Alive) of the Hilltop Colony. Obviously, she's much better as the boss of the Hilltop than Gregory ever was, and her pragmatism is currently a pretty nice contrast to the idealism of Rick post-Carl.
2. Rick Grimes (Alive) of Alexandria. Rick is a natural leader who has guided his group through hell and back. He has led them through countless battles with the both the living and the dead is is still standing to tell the tale. But for how much longer?
Gene Page/AMC
1. King Ezekiel (Alive) of The Kingdom. His kingdom is gone thanks to the Saviors, but his legacy is still pretty solid. He kept that place going as long as he possibly could have, and he wasn't a coward when it came time to choose sides in the war with the Saviors.
Gene Page/AMC

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TheWrap looks back at the heroic and villainous leaders on the hit AMC series

On "The Walking Dead," plenty have tried to lead, but few have been successful. Here we look back on all those who led others to safety -- or their graves.

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